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Barney Frank Repudiates Own Anti-ACORN Support

Michael O’Brien over at The Hill is reporting that Congressman Barney Frank (D, Mass.) is backtracking on his previous support of Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s (R, Minn.) bill that would prevent federal money from going to the corruption plagued Association of Community Activists for Reform Now (ACORN).

Bachmann had initially gotten Frank’s support for a bill that would toughen regulations on community organizers preventing groups like ACORN from getting federal money if any of its employees came under indictment for voter fraud.

But this week Frank pulled his support saying he will instead back an amendment that prevents federal funding for groups with employee convictions, not just indictments.

Bachmann blasted Frank’s sudden reversal.

“Are we expected to keep forking over tax dollars to these organization when they’re under the cloud of suspicion of a public criminal indictment?” Bachmann asked in a statement.

“If nothing else, this shows us just how much influence ACORN and others have over Chairman Frank and the Democrat party,” she said. “Your tax dollars are being abused.”

I am forced, however, to agree with one of the most odious Congressmen in Washington D.C. on this one. Frank is right to say we can’t attack an entire organization merely because of one indictment of one of its employees. After all, an indictment is not necessarily guilt proven. As with the many false “indictments” on Tom DeLay in Texas, we on the right side of the aisle should admit that indictments are no proof of anything and can easily be politically motivated. Further a single indictment of an employee is also not necessarily proof of any collusion by the organization for which the employee works.

But this situation is being approached from the wrong direction, anyway. We should not be trying to determine when and under what circumstances these so-called community organizers should receive federal funds. We should be discussing the outright elimination of ALL such funding whether the organization is a criminal enterprise or not.

The federal government has NO business funding ANY of these groups. Period.